A media report has said the government has decided to scrap 10 coal-fired power plants and few more may also be scrapped out of a total 18 that the government approved since 2008. The authorities are justifying the move saying their construction work has remained stalled. The report has said the government is now planning to use liquefied natural gas (LNG) and petroleum to generate power but it is yet to make a plan on how an LNG-fired power plant can be set up.
We must say we are appalled by the sudden reversal of the government policy which involves not only years of work of public and private agencies and use of government resources behind all those projects although the move is in the right direction. It also raises the question as to how the government will fill up the vacuum in power generation because scrapping around 10,000 MW capacity at a time is too big. Why the government approved them as most of them were unnecessary and their generation capacity is twice as much of the country’s demand over the next twenty years. Moreover, the government is yet to chart out a detailed plan on how to set up LNG power generation plants based on imported fuel.
What appears highly intriguing is the change of government mindset towards coal-fired power plants which it vigorously promoted since it came to power. It gave approval to so many projects ignoring opposition from environmental groups while it also approved so many independent power plants in the private sector doubling government subsidies by overburdening tax payers. It appeared that Indian government pushed the controversial 1224 MW Rampal coal-fired power plant.
We know the giant coal-fired Ashuganj Power Plant will be scrapped but people would be happy to see the Rampal coal-fired plant is also scrapped because it is a threat to the existence of the Sundarbans. We are aware of the fact that local and international coal lobbies used pressure on the government to give approval to coal-fired power plants. The Indian lobby particularly used pressure on the Bangladesh government to set up Rampal power plant to create a market for coal India has in excess supply. International technology firms also used pressure to sell machinery. It is no secret that government leaders and business lobbies worked behind each and every such contract to make undue fortune from those plus commissions. Now we would say this option to discard coal-based power should be applied to all cases.
